The NDP's foreign policy under Jagmeet Singh: A success or failure?
Photo Credit: (TVO / Google Images)
Written by: Morgana Adby
Now is the perfect time to look at the NDP foreign policy under Jagmeet Singh, if for no other reason than to evaluate our relationship with international power structures. Foreign policy is adapting quickly in the wake of COVID-19 and Canada’s role has demonstrably changed. Canada used to take on international responsibilities enthusiastically, but now we are turning away refugees, and otherwise reevaluating Canada’s interests.
Plenty of time has been dedicated to Trudeau’s highlight reel: many have criticized the romanticism of our recent foreign affairs and emphasis on branding. That said, in this time of rapid change, we wanted to refocus on the lessons learned from the NDP influence on foreign policy.
Firstly, it is impossible to avoid the connection between domestic and international politics in the context of Singh’s leadership. Unfortunately, we do live in a country where a proudly Sikh leader will always be quietly held to a higher standard of performative loyalty - and in the current political climate, those standards are already high. Although the ridicule of our Prime Minister’s performative cultural antics has become a national pastime across party lines, there is also a small, but growing voter base that is intensely reactive to politicians doing anything perceived as multicultural.
Concerns have been raised that the priorities of recent executive leadership have been hyper-focused on the handling NAFTA, and now, cooperating with other states to address the novel coronavirus. Other priorities, such as maintaining a stable relationship with India, some Global Affairs officials say, have gone to the wayside.
Jagmeet Singh has condemned the BJP and Prime Minister Modi since his campaign days, pointing out the escalation of racial hatred within India. Even as things have escalated since then, the Liberal government has stayed mostly quiet. Others have guessed this is because our relationship with India is strained by the lack of meaningful diplomacy, but surely a variety of factors went into that decision.
Singh’s concern for the ethno-nationalism has carried to the present, even telling CBC, "the response from Canada so far has been very weak, very lukewarm and quite meaningless."
One of the foreign policy subjects that Singh has been lukewarm on is BDS (boycott, divest, sanctions), and the policies around the Israeli, Palestine region. In fact, his statements more or less leave him as a centrist. He voted against anti-BDS legislation, saying it is an issue of free political expression, but also said he did not personally support it.
This year, he spoke with Canadian Jewish News: “He unequivocally condemned BDS, stating that it “creates tensions and divisions,” and “does not advance peace.” Singh stated that neither he nor the NDP support BDS, believing that it is not “the right path forward.”
This stance is under fire by Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East, who say that this is inconsistent to what he told them in a questionnaire in 2017. The original report on that questionnaire states “On the question of Israel-Palestine, Singh's responses to the CJPME-IJV questionnaire demonstrate that he takes a highly critical view of Israel's human rights abuses, particularly Israel's settlements.” They also say Singh said he was willing to support regulating the labelling of products from Israeli settlements and would exclude settlement products from the CIFTA. Likewise, he said he would consider sanctions or even bans on settlement products.
All that to say, that was the past. In the present, it seems to be a Singh that is tolerant but not friendly to the BDS movement. Singh has considerably softened his own rhetoric over time. Looking at the NDP’s stance on BDS under his leadership, it is entirely uncoordinated. Even as Singh tries to distance himself from his previous image, there are people in the leftmost corner of the NDP who have been in opposition to Israeli settlements for years.
In 2018, an entirely romantic proposal from the socialist caucus even called for the rejection of a two-state solution, supporting instead a secular state. For full disclosure, I do tend to prefer the idea of a one-state solution, but the people living in the region itself are the only people who can decide how many states there should be. All I care about is encouraging peace. Foreign policy is a team sport, and the idea that Canada ought to unilaterally push for a single secular state is lacking in historical and political perspective.
The various players pulling him in all directions means that Singh can not get off that fence, even if he wanted to. It is unlikely that he could get those MPs to get in line without upsetting the grassroots wing voting base. Also unlikely, the hopes of some activists that he will ever go back to his old rhetoric on BDS. It is just too tempting to get along with the Jewish community in Canada.
Maybe this is as it should be. Singh is not the activist for Palestinian rights that some hoped, but the rest of the NDP is free to continue agitating to revoke our compliance with Israeli settlements. Likewise, a leader that avoids accusations of antisemitism like the plague is good. Overall, it normalizes efforts to work with good faith actors of all identities that want peace in the Israel, Palestine region, which is probably the best foundation to have when addressing a raw nerve.
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